I’ve only made a teeny bit of progress on E’s neck thingie, and here’s the reason why:

Oh sure, he looks laid back in his “Who-me?-I’m-just-chilling-out-in-the-sun” pose, but don’t be fooled. This little 4 lb. wonder is busy.

Moving on up

First, we upgraded his digs. When we brought him home, he was so small that he fit easily into the crate on the left. He could barely see above its blue “walls,” so foolishly we thought he’d never outgrow it. Ha! Six weeks later, he was already too cramped. His new crate is on the right — much more spacious accommodations with better views and room to expand.

We then enrolled him in puppy school, where he’s meeting all kinds of other puppies and people. It’s a six-week course with a test at the end. When I told the kids that Louie was going to be tested, they helped him with his homework.

Lesson 1: we should hand-feed him his dinner at least once a day for a while, so that he would learn that good things come from people’s hands and he’d learn not to nip at them. I’m not really sure that the kids like hand-feeding him because he does tend to slobber while he’s gobbling up his kibble.

Who's training whom?

Lesson 2: He’s aced the “sit” and he’s pretty good at “come here,” but I think he needs a tutor on “down.” Because he is so low to the ground, he pops right back up on his feet when you try to lure him to lay down with a treat. M said he could demonstrate the command for him, but really, I think he was trying to get Louie to jump all over him.

And then there’s this:

"Gimme the frog."

Lesson 3: “Dead frog on string” is the best toy around, next to treat-filled Kongs. The object is to exercise your dog by dancing this dead frog in front of him. He runs and runs, finally catches it, and then shakes the daylights out of it. As part of his homework, he has to be able to give up the toy. So far, we’ve only been able to convince him to drop the hostage by exchanging a treat for it. Poor dead frog.